Jerusalem – it’s his birthright

FOR decades, lobbyists have tried to persuade the US to backtrack on its refusal to recognise Jerusalem as part of Israel. But now, a nine-year-old boy seems to be having more success than any of them have enjoyed.

Menachem Zivotofsky wants Israel to be listed as his birthplace in his American passport. The son of US immigrants to Jerusalem, like most of the city’s Jewish residents, he considers the city to be part of Israel. But America insists that the city has “unresolved” status, so it refuses to register the birthplace of children born there as Israeli.

Zivotofsky’s parents filed a lawsuit on his behalf in 2003, but it was subsequently thrown out by a federal judge who said the court cannot interfere with the government’s foreign policy. Last week, however, the Supreme Court said the judge was wrong, and that the case must be heard.

The boy’s father, Ari Zivotofsky, a rabbi and scientist, told The AJN that he was “very happy” about the ruling, and spoke of his motivation for the legal battle. “We’re immigrants to Israel who came for historical and religious reasons and having the State of Israel on our son’s documents is very important to us,” he said.

The Zivotofsky petition is based on the fact that in 2002, Congress passed a law stating that parents of Jerusalem-born parents have the right to register their child as Israeli-born. “For purposes of the registration of birth, certification of nationality, or issuance of a passport of a United States citizen born in the city of Jerusalem, the secretary shall, upon the request of the citizen or the citizen’s legal guardian, record the place of birth as Israel,” the law stated.

But on the request of then-president George W Bush, passport offices did not act on the law. He argued that it could undermine the president’s authority to decide foreign policy.

Ari Zivotofsky claims that Bush had no excuse for disregarding the law, saying: “We just want to enforce the court’s ruling of 10 years ago.”

Following last week’s development, the Lewin and Lewin law practice put out a statement saying: “Menachem Zivotofsky has been our firm’s youngest client for the past nine years – since shortly after he was born. We hope that he will witness a successful conclusion to this litigation by the time he celebrates his bar ­mitzvah.”

NATHAN JEFFAY